The Recipe blends poignant story-telling with vivid culinary detail and offers a compelling recipe for personal greatness.
Eight-time Culinary Olympian, and two time Chef to Chef Conference presenter, Charles Carroll, Executive Chef of River Oaks Country Club (Houston, Texas), has partnered up with New York Times bestselling author John David Mann to pen the book The Recipe, a story of loss, love, and the ingredients of greatness. The book is currently available on Amazon.
“It’s a story about a little boy who loses his dad at a very young age, gets mad at the world and mad at God, and that gets him in a bunch of trouble,” says Carroll in an in an interview with Bill Schulz, MCM. “His dad’s friend, a crusty old retired military chef, pulls the boy in. Each chapter is a life lesson, and each chapter they cook something together. It is so beautiful, as you can imagine, good cooking has so many comparisons to life!”
Carroll first presented at the Chef to Chef Conference in 2010 when it was held in Palm Beach, Fla., and again in 2014 in San Antonio, Texas. He was also featured in a Chef’s Thoughts article in C&RB’s Chef to Chef in 2014. Currently, Carroll travels the world speaking on championship thinking and the ingredients of greatness.
He won his first Culinary Olympics gold medal at the age of 24 (as the youngest member of the team) and has since participated in the quadrennial Olympics as team member, coach, and judge. He was named one of the year’s Great Country Inn Chefs by the James Beard Foundation (1993) and is past president of the World Association of Chefs Societies. He has been inducted into the World Master Chefs Association, the American Academy of Chefs, the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, and the Honorable order of the Golden Toque.
In 2011 Chef Carroll founded Operation HOT (“Honoring Our Troops”), putting on a series of Vegas-style shows and presenting a home-cooked Cajun meal for thousands of U.S. troops in the middle of a war zone in Afghanistan and giving away more than seven tons of gifts. For his work with U.S. troops abroad in 2011 and again in 2013, he was personally commended by five U.S. presidents. In 2013 he was awarded the Honorable Order of Saint Martin by the U.S. Army. Chef Carroll currently serves as Executive Chef of Houston’s River Oaks Country Club.
In the interview with Schulz, Carroll touches on some important topics including personal qualities and life values critical to professional success and happiness. He also reveals how he’s able to balance the demands of River Oaks CC with all the other parts of his professional career.
